Hillsboro recorder., 1887-11-17
POPULAR SCIENCE.

A photographer, connected with tht
United States Signal Corps, had obtained
/. a photograph Of a sunrise from the sum.
nit of Pixies Peak.
A French horticulturist, Count dc
Buysson, ensures the growth of seeds SC
old as to have doubtful terminating
power by soaking them for thirty six
hours in water containing little guano
or other source of nitrogen. ~
Anincrease in the demand for mica has
resulted from its use for electrical pur-
poses, land special machinery has been de-
vised for getting out the mineral Elec,
trlcians usually select the whitest kinds,
some colored micas having so much iron
that their Insulating property is affected.
An Oxford meteorologist seeks to
prove that the European and American
magnetic poles are coincident with the
centres of greatest cold for the two con-
tinents, and that the shiftings of the
magnetic poles is due to the same series
of astronomical and geological causes
which produce the secular changes in
climate.
Prospectors are roaming about the
mountain country Of Tennessee, through
which railroads are to pass, seeking ore
beds, which can now be bought for mere
ly nominal prices. Rich lead and silver
ore have been found in several localities.
In one immense cave in Putnam County
five distinct veins of lead, all valuable,
have been found.
~ An English observer recommends the
locomotive as cheap hygrometer for
farmers and Others living near railroads.
When the escaping steam remains long
suspended the air is near its point Of
saturation with moisture, but when the
steam quickly disappears, as if swallowed
up, the weather is dry and there is little
prospect of rain.
A scientific journal, in an attempt to
prove that mankind could not exert me-
chanieal force enough of their own to
produce the amount of heat needed to
raise the crops necessary daily TO feed
themselves, states that 'fhe mechanical
equivalent of the vertical sunshine re-
cciyed upon square mile of the earth's
service is computed to be 3, 323, 900, 900
pounds raised foot high in a second.
Mr.. Ernest Hart, of the Smoke Abate-
ment Institute, fears that London will
always suffer from fogs, because it is
placed in river valley, on a clay soil,
and is bordered on the Essex side by
low-lying lands very imperfectly drained,
and on the north side by the Harrow
Wcald. The fogs generated, the results
Of lamp cXhalations, are greatly aggra.
vatcd by the parks, most of which re-
quire draining. But if the smoke is got
rid of the fogs will be much less dense.
The latest theory of the mode of forma-
ton Of ozone in the atmosphere is that of
c. Wurster, whose observations have led
him TO conclude that it is formed by the
action Of clouds. He states that when
clouds are continually formed from above
the. become highly charged with this ac-
tive form of oxygen, whilst those formed
from below only contain it in notable
quantity in their upper layer. This
theory has no advantage over many
others, il admits of confirmation or ref
utatiOn both by observation and expert
ment. Artificial clouds are easily formed,
may be confined in glass vessels, and
there exposed 10 sunlight. Ordinary
oxOnometer paper contained in the same
vessel will at once display the formation
Of ozone il il actually occurs.